After conceding three goals in the first half, the Washington Spirit recovered to beat Duke University 4-3 in the Spirit’s third of four preseason games. Spirit forward Katie Stengel scored twice, while Meggie Dougherty Howard and Cheyna Williams each added a goal. The Spirit trailed 3-2 at the half but adding Joanna Lohman and Tori Huster helped significantly, and the Spirit responded with two goals and a vastly improved performance.
“There was a lot of backing off and not moving forward and pressing in an organized fashion, probably because they hadn’t done it together enough but the first half was disappointing because they hadn’t played the way we trained and some of it was due to the newness of the system and the newness of the players,” Spirit head coach Jim Gabbara said of Washington’s troubles in the first half.